Rodmell and Southease

Pauline Cherry

Published:00:00Friday 04 March 2016

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LECTURE: for those of you who want to go to Ian Everest’s lecture in March, I suggest you get your tickets quickly from either Christine Isitt or David Smart as Ian’s lectures are very popular. The event takes place on Saturday March 19 in the village hall and tickets cost £7.50.

BABIES: It seems these days you cannot turn the television on without seeing babies being born, mothers screaming in agony and blood and gore everywhere. Is it surprising that many women re afraid to have babies and chose to be part of Britain’s growing band of childless women? My mother had just had me, although she came from a large family, and always said one was enough and if a man had the first baby there wouldn’t be a second. Also women these days don’t tolerate what their mothers put up with. I can always remember in Margaret Powell’s book Upstairs and Downstairs, when her husband came home and said, ‘I’m just off down the pub dear,’ she said ‘Hang on I’ll come with you.’ He was horrified and said, ‘But you can’t. Who will look after the baby?’ To which she replied ‘it’s your baby as well as mine you know and I’ve also been working hard all day.’ I think she was a feisty woman.

ACCIDENT: I had a lovely drive over to Eastbourne recently and it was so nice to see lambs gambolling in the fields, a sign of spring. There was a not quite so nice sight of a car upside down in one of the sheep fields that must have come a cropper on the ice we’ve been having. But, how it travelled over the fence up a slight bank without damaging the fence beggars belief. I do hope the people in it were okay.

SHADOW PAINTINGS: I don’t know who has been doing those wonderful shadow paintings on the boarding around the building site of the Premier Inn, but they have been greatly admired and appreciated by many people.

PLANNING: How can planning officer Sue Dubberley state that the Amex Stadium was ‘carefully designed to nestle into the curves of the surrounding South Downs?’ I am always being asked, by the walkers who walk the south Downs Way, what the horrendous building is that spoils the view from Ditchling Beacon. It’s such a shame that they have turned down the hotel and cancer treatment centre, both of which are badly needed. Let’s face it we lost the ideal spot for a new hospital for Brighton and surrounding areas, where a railway station was right on hand, medical research takes place at the University of Sussex and, it would have been an idyllic country spot with plenty of parking etc. Plus, public transport on hand. Would it be too much to ask to have a cancer treatment centre as some sort of compensation for what we’ve lost? I’ve heard so many doctors and nurses having the same thoughts. Anyone coping with cancer or needing to get loved ones into the unit at the Royal Sussex County Hospital will understand the problems. A hotel nearby would also give loved ones the chance to stay nearby and use the transport facilities on hand. Let’s hope there will be a change of plan.

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